


Triple Dog Date Him!

by Alliswell



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Nerdy!Peeta, OOC!Katniss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-14 22:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10545748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alliswell/pseuds/Alliswell
Summary: Prompt #57: Katniss is dared to ask nerdy!Peeta out on a date, she ends up actually enjoying her time with him.Katniss has known of Peeta Mellark since they were little, but not until her roommate Johanna decides Katniss has had a too long hiatus from the dating scene, she dares speak to the boy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #57 of the Everlark Fic Exchange: Katniss is dared to ask nerdy!Peeta out on a date, she ends up actually enjoying her time with him. By: Anonymous.
> 
> None of the characters of The Hunger Games belong to me. 
> 
> This piece has not been betaed. All mistakes are mine and I apologize for them.

I make my way to Greasy Sae’s, the diner I work at five days a week; I get a discount on my bill if I eat here… the life of a college student doesn’t support luxuries, like passing up ‘discounted prices’ on hearty meals and if Old Sae, the owner of the diner, is here without her watchful granddaughter, my meals become free, which is an even better value for my wallet.

  
My friend and roommate, Johanna, is already seated at our usual booth, so I make my way towards her and slide in on my side of the bench. We don’t speak, merely grunting our greetings to each other and burying our noses on the sticky menu we already know by heart. Jo introduced me to Sae, that’s how I got the job of waitress at her fine establishment, which means, Jo gets free meals too, making Sae’s diner our favorite place to eat.

  
The old woman comes herself to our table and sits a mug of mint tea in front of me and a cherry Coke in front of Jo.

  
“You girls need a second to peruse the menu, or should I just go ahead and bring out your usual?”

  
We both look at old Sea’s smirking face, and say “Usual” at the same time, which causes the old lady to guffaw all the way back to the kitchen.

  
Having nothing better to do, we go back at staring at the menu.

  
Johanna and I had a little impasse this morning, and we are giving the cold shoulder to each other. Or at least I thought we were.

  
“Was the night you went out with Gale, the last time you went out on a date?” She asks breaking the icy standoff.

  
I scrunch up my face, “Nah. I went to that frat party with Darius. A big, fat waste of my time.” I sigh remembering the disaster that date was.

  
“Mhmm.” She’s frowning at the chili section of the menu, then she clears her throat, “Fine, then it’s high time you went out on a date. That debacle with Darius was almost four months ago.”

  
“I don’t wanna go on a date!” I protest slapping the menu onto the table.

  
“Why not? You go on a date, I get the dorm to myself for a few hours where I can invite some willing guy, to get me off this dry spell… both figuratively and literally!” she places her own menu down delicately, staring me down.

  
“No!” I cross my arms over my chest like a brat.

  
“Why?”

  
“There aren’t any guys I’d like to go out with!” I say harshly.

  
“Then try a girl. I’ve always say, there’s fun in diversity,”

  
“I’m not attracted to girls, Johanna,”

  
“Then I’ll choose a dude for you, Brainless. What do you say?” She grins deviously.

  
“I said no!” I stomp my foot under the table, but she’s on a mission.

  
Johanna scoots upwards in her bench, and her eyes make a wide scan of the place. Is a Sunday evening, and the diner offers student specials when the cafeteria at campus is close on the weekends. The place is packed with kids from every year.

  
“Aha!” Johanna shouts delighted, “Him!”  
I turn, only because of morbid curiosity forces my head, but once I locate the guy she’s pointing at, I snort derisively.

  
“Big fat no!” I tell her.

  
“What’s wrong with Jack Marvel?” She asks arching an eyebrow.

  
“Ugh! No. He was in my literature class freshmen year, he’s got two cockroaches playing ping-pong in his head instead of brains. Pass!”

  
“O-kaaaay…” she looks around the room. “Ooh! I got it!”

  
I look again, and this time it takes me a second longer to shut down her candidate.

  
“I’m not going out with Alexander Cato. He’s a misogynistic pig! He got offended because I got top marks on our last math test. He called me a cheat, even though he was the one asking every soul in the room, what they had answered on number four. Parasite!”

  
“But you looked at him. That means we are on the right track,” Jo says shrugging one shoulder.

  
“He’s okay looking, if you ignore what a big jerk he actually is.”

  
“So, you like blondes now?”

  
I scowl at her teasing tone and roll my eyes. “I don’t really have a type per say… I actually thought it was someone else until I realized his shoulders weren’t the right breadth,”

  
“What does that even mean?” She asks arching a brow, and I know I’ve said too much.

  
“Nothing. It means nothing.”

  
“Fine, how about…” she pauses for a moment.

  
I don’t like how easily she’s dropped the subject. She’s never this easy. Then, I see a broad smile form on her lips before she looks back at me.

  
“I found the perfect guy,” she mock whispers.

  
I’m scrambling up, trying to twist all the way around to see who she’s talking about, then I cackle at her choice.

  
“Puh-lease!” I chant, “Odair? Are you serious? Get real, Johanna! What makes you think I’ll even try it?”

  
“Okay, now what’s wrong with Finnick?” She actually looks indignant. “I’ll have you know, Finn and I go way back, and he’s an alright dude!”

  
I roll my eyes, “If you must know, Finnick Odair is too pretty. He knows he’s pretty and takes advantage of it. I wouldn’t touch his narcissistic ass with a ten foot pole, even if he was the last guy left in school. He’s too easy to get, or maybe too easy to lose… I haven’t decided which is worse yet.”

  
“You’re wrong about Finn,” Johanna says annoyedly, “He’s engaged to his high school sweetheart. He might be a big flirt, but he’s no cheater.”

  
“Then why did you pointed him out as an option?” I ask aggravated.

  
“I didn’t.” She hisses, “I was pointed at the guy sitting with him.” And like that, the smirk is back on her face.

  
I turn in my seat, straining my neck to see who’s she talking about.

  
I freeze.

  
Then just as fast as I turned to look, I drop into my bench and try to shrink myself as small as I can.

  
I can’t believe Johanna!

  
She starts chuckling quietly, no doubt laughing at my discomfort.

  
“So? What do you think of my pick, Kitty Kat?” She asks.

  
I glare at her. “No.” I grit between my teeth.

  
She whines, “Awww. Why? He’s got everything you kind of like,” she says smirking, “actual brains in his head, sparkling baby blue eyes, muscles that go on forever, a boyish smile, and that wavy ashy mop of blonde hair covering his nerdy brain!” She laughs full on, “He’s perfect!”

  
I turn back to spy on him and make sure he’s not aware we’re talking about him. Lousy Johanna is right. He is pretty perfect, and completely out of the question, don’t get me started on how out my league he is.

  
“That is an absolute ‘hell no!’” I say through gritted teeth.

  
To my horror, Johanna waves.

  
“What are you doing?” I screech trying and failing to lunge myself across the table to stop her.

  
“What? Stop!” She snaps. “I’m just trying to get Sae’s attention you maniac!”

  
I cover my face with my hands in embarrassment, and plop sideways into the bench.

  
“Jeez! If I knew little baker boy had your panties in such a tight knot I would’ve made you talk to him sooner.” She bites, not one bit amused.

  
“I- he- is not that. He’s out of bounds.” I say lamely.

  
“Out of bounds?” She repeats staring at me as if I’ve sprouted a second head, “what are you talking about?”

  
I take a deep breath to calm myself. “My friend Delly, she’s always had her eye on him. They were next door neighbors growing up, their parents still live next to each other. They were very good friends. She always got invited to his place to play with his action figures. They used to exchange comic books, even though Delly couldn’t care less about them, her brother used to tell her all she needed to know to get by.”

  
Johanna is still staring at me as if I just said the stupidest thing ever. Which she promptly voices after I’ve finally gone mute.

  
“That’s ridiculous, Brainless. You won’t ask a guy out because a girl you knew in elementary school had a crush on him?” Her tone is disbelieving. “Isn’t Delly the one girl with the humongous boobs?” She asks.

  
“Yeah, so?”

  
“Last time we went to your house, she was talking non stop about this Thom guy she met at work. She sounded pretty serious about him, Katniss.” She says in a patronizing tone I hate.

  
“Jo, you don’t understand. Peeta Mellark and I have nothing in common, other than we come from the same town. But I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks so to speak, while he was the rare, golden boy, who could be both a brainiac- debate club president- and a jock- wrestling champ- at the same time, and everyone loved. Me– I wasn’t popular. Hell, I would’ve believed I was unlikable, if it hadn’t been for Gale, Delly and Madge insisting on sitting with me at lunch all through high school. I have no business messing with that boy.” I deflate.

  
Sae places our food in front of us, and I smile at her gratefully, because Johanna is nothing but a one mind track sort of being, she’ll drop the whole thing once she starts eating, and then she’ll concentrate in the next thing that happens, except, she doesn’t.

  
Johanna finishes her greasy double steakburger with cheese, sucking a stranded piece of finely sliced onion into her mouth as if it was a single spaghetti noodle with a pop at the end.

  
I try not watch her disgusting eating habits while I try to finish up with my bowl of lamb stew over rice, poking around for a plum. I believe I may be the only patron under sixty to ever order the stew, but it just reminds me of home in rainy days, but my peace is disturbed when my dinner mate starts slurping obnoxiously the last dregs of her soda through her chewed up straw.

  
I glare at her, she knows I hate it when she does that, but she smirks, letting me know every nasty sound she’s made in the last five minutes were all for my benefit. Sometimes is easy to for me to see Johanna as the annoying older sister I’m grateful I never had.

  
“So,” she says smacking her lips loudly, “I’ve been thinking.”

  
I groan, sliding my food away from me. It’s never a good thing when Johanna’s sentences start with ‘I’ve been thinking’, so I brace myself for whatever crazy idea has been floating around her idle mind.

  
“I believe is time for you to go on a date, so I can go forth and get laid.”

  
“Oh please, Johanna, don’t be crass–”

  
“No, no! Hear me out.” She toots haughtily rising her hand. “I know you don’t believe in casual sex- hell, I know you didn’t give it up to Gale, and he’s been after that shit since he could jerk off–”

  
“JOHANNA! Good grief.” I hiss, “I don’t think the people in the table across the diner heard you! Could you, please, mind your words?” I shake my head, because she looks too gleeful when she shrugs.

  
“Fine, have it your way Mother Teresa. As I was saying, it is my expert opinion, that is in both our best interests if you went out on a date. I seriously don’t care who you go out with, as long as you let me have the dorm to myself for a couple of hours.” And then, she pulls her big guns against me: her huge, brown puppy dog eyes! “Pretty please with a cherry on top?” she sounds pitiful.

  
I rub my face with both my hands, and finally acquiesce to her pleads. I hate the smug, pleased smile she throws at me right after, but I figure she’s right. I haven’t been out on a date since forever, not that I date much, but nothing can go as wrong as Darius puking on me- twice- in less than thirty minutes, which was how long it took me to drop him off at the Campus infirmary after confirming his food poisoning. I shudder at the memory.

  
We leave our booth, and shuffle behind a group of giggling sorority girls trying to skip on their meal check, but Sae fixes them with her deadly accurate impersonation of a neapolitan mastiff- the breed is truly harmless, but so intimidating. When she sees us standing there, she waves us off smiling and saying we our dinner was on the house, causing the sorority sister to glare daggers at us and a male full laugh to bubble up behind us.

  
I turn around to see who’s the idiot that actually dares to piggyback a laugh on our moment, and I’m surprised to find myself face to face with the most stunning ocean green eyes I’ve ever seen in my life, accompanied by the whitest, sparkliest perfect row of teeth, in the history of the world. Damn that Finnick Odair is unreal.

  
“Great! Good going Finn! You broke my roommate!” says Jo next to me, except her voice is too full of mirth to be a tell off.

  
“Hey Jo! How’s it going sweetums?” He asks allowing his lips to fall into an easy smile, framed by dimpled cheeks.

  
He reaches an arm past me, and I freeze, his eyes honed on mine, which may be the size of flying saucers judging by how dry they feel right now.

  
“Hi there, roommate. Although I rather call you by your real name, Katniss?”

  
Okay. Now I’m officially in shock, the most gorgeous man on earth knows my name somehow, but we’ve never been introduced before. Who cares if he just dragged the ss at the end of my name in the most obnoxious manner ever!

  
He finally pulls his arm back to himself, and I see he’s got a small pile of sugar cubes on his hand. He pops a cube into his mouth and asks me in the smoothest voice I’ve ever heard directed at me, “Want a sugar cube, Katniss?”

  
The crunching sound he makes while chewing, finally brings me back to earth. I frown at the noise and take a step back.

  
“Leave her alone, would you?” says another voice, male, deep, not truly harsh, but still rings like a command.

  
Finnick’s megawatt smile dims immediately, his eyes do a quick take of who spoke and then turns back to me, with a friendly grin. He step back, popping another sugar cube into his mouth he most likely stole from the counter behind me.

  
But I’m back to catatonic state, staring at my knight in shining armour, giving his friend a stern look before facing me, but as usual, Jo has to be the one to open her loud mouth.

  
“Hey there, handsome,” She says in a sugary tone. When Peeta ‘freaking’ Mellark doesn’t answer, she turns to his companion, “Hey Finn, does your friend have a name?” she asks coyly.

  
Finnick laughs, “Of course, Jo!” He obliges before I can turn to give Jo a searing glare of death.

  
She knows full well who Finnick’s friend is.

  
“This is Peeta Mellark. Outstanding dude, my best friend, second only to Annie herself, and my roommate.” He turns to Peeta, who’s eyes keep flicking back and forth between me and Finnick. “Peet, this Johanna Mason a long time friend of mine, and you know this lovely lady standing next to Jo is–”

  
“Katniss Everdeen.” Peeta finishes the sentence apparently out of breath, while Finnick’s lips lift on a devilish grin he can’t quite hide fast enough. But Peeta keeps talking, bringing my spasmic attention back to him. “Very nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard many great things about you from Dells.”

  
My response is to nod followed by a very pitiful “Likewise,” that comes out as strained and congested. It’s not my fault, really. He’s taken my hand in his to shake, and I’m overwhelmed by how warm and big it feels around my own. As soon as he lets go of it, I wipe it on my pant leg because suddenly my palms are sweating uncontrollably immediately regret my action, because I don’t want to wipe away the feeling of his touch just yet.

  
“So, tonight is Peet’s turn to pick up the check, and I figured I’d ask if we could take yours as well, lovely ladies… but I see Old Sae beat me to the punch,” Finnick says sending a smile to Sae still sitting behind the register.

  
The old woman, cackles mirthfully, “You can still do the gentlemanly thing and pay for the girls’ grub, you know.” But since she’s still laughing when Peeta passes her his credit card, we all know she wont charge him for our food.

  
Jo thanks Finnick and Peeta anyway for their offer, which I would’ve refused anyway if it came down to it. I like free meals and all, but a girl has to have some dignity.

  
Jo and Finn truly are friends, and for some crazy reason decide on staying in the middle of the diner lobby catching up. I catch Peeta’s eyes several time, but he averts his eyes so fast is a wonder he hasn’t lost one those baby-blues so far. My face starts to feel warm with his confusing attention, and I start to squirm as sweat starts to bead on my forehead and around the collar of my shirt. I need to get out of this place quickly, before I do something stupid, like tell Peeta Mellark I used to have a crush on him almost my whole childhood.

  
I’m grateful when we finally part ways after an awkward goodbye exchange between me and everyone else. I practically run in the direction of campus, listening how Johanna turns down Finnick’s offer to drive us back to our dorm. Apparently Finnick Odair and Peeta Mellark are living in a rented house with two more guys somewhere close by, I just don’t sit there long enough to learn any details.

  
Johanna finally catches up with me, and while I try to ignore her pointed stares, I know that sooner or later she’s gonna open her mouth to say whatever crazy thing she thinks she just saw, so I don’t give her a chance.

  
“I’m not gonna ask him out on a date, if that’s what you are thinking about.” I say firmly.

  
“Oh come on! The guy couldn’t keep his eyes off you, as if you were Gal Gadot in your skimpy Wonder Woman costume straight out of the big screen. Plus I didn’t say anything.” she counters nonchalantly. “Not yet at least.”

  
“Well, you’re wasting your time, Jo. I won’t ask him out. If he was staring at me, was probably wondering why I was staring at him like an idiot”

  
“You are an idiot, brainless! But fine!” she snaps grabbing my arm and forcing me to stop mid step. “Lets fix this old school.” She says flatly.

  
“What do you mean ‘old school’?” I ask dubiously.

  
“You’ll see as soon as we are back in our room. And since it’s old school, there’s no ‘givesis backsis’ and no double crossing the deal. You can’t back out!” she says.

  
For some reason this whole conversation is so childish and immature, I chuckle, and like a chump, I agree to her ludicrous terms. Because that’s what I am: a chump.

  
We finally arrive home, and that’s when everything goes downhill for me.

  
“Sit!” Johanna commands.

  
I make to sit on my desk chair, while she goes shifting stuff behind her bed, where I know she keep her hidden booze- we aren’t allowed alcohol in the dorms, but that doesn’t mean people don’t have a secret stash somewhere.

  
“On the floor, Brainless!” she growls at me as soon as my ass touches the chair, making me jump startled.

  
Once again, I do as she says, and slide on my butt on to the gross carpet, we try to avoid by placing our own area rugs everywhere we think we will be barefooted.

  
Soon, Johanna is joining me on the floor with a bottle of something amber that’s only a third full. “Pass your laptop here.” She demands unscrewing the bottle open.

  
“What do you want my laptop for?” I ask. “I thought you were solving this old school. A computer is not very old school, in case you didn’t know.” I snort a little, thinking up something clever, “I thought we were gonna play spin the bottle or something,”

  
“Shut up, Brainless. We can’t play spin the bottle just the two of us, that’ll be stupid!” She chugs a generous pull of whatever liquor she’s got and passes the bottle to me, taking the computer in turn.

  
I’m not much of a drinker, so I just hold the bottle for her, while I see her signing in on my facebook account.

  
“Hey! That’s personal! I could report you for that you know?” I scream at her and try to grab my laptop from her, but in one of her Johanna moves, she holds me away by placing her foot on my chest while stretching away from my reach.

  
“Stop, Katniss, I’m looking for your friend Delly, so quit being a whiny brat and let a woman work in peace.”

  
“I don’t know what you want with Delly, but whatever it is, you’re going too far!”

  
“Aha!” she crows jubilantly, jumping up and keeping the computer away from me still. “Okay, Brainless, time of truth! You said the reason for refusing to talk to Bread Boy, is because Delly used to like him when they were kids.”

  
“Yes. So?” I grumble and sit back down crossing every limb of my body until I’m a human knot.

  
“So, this is a modified game of Truth or Dare.”

  
I shrug. Truth or Dare doesn’t scare me. “Do your worse then,” I taunt.

  
She sits down across from me sporting a mirror image of my facial expression. I see her eyes go up and down as she scrolls the page currently on display on the screen, and then I see her smug smirk make an appearance.

  
Jo knows almost everything about me, we managed to stay roommates since my freshman year, she had been in school for a while before I came in, with classes scattered about every semester since she had become an orphan just a month after starting her first year and had to drop out until she got her life back on track. We became reluctant friends after a while, and then I invited her to come home with me during Thanksgiving break, since I thought it sucked she had nobody else to go home to. My family practically adopted her on the spot, despite her potty mouth and boisterous personality. In no time she had met everyone in town, and thanks to my sweet, big mouthed little sister, Prim, that included everything there was to know about one Peeta Mellark, youngest son of the best known baker in my home county.

  
She deduced pretty quickly I had a schoolgirl crush on the guy growing up, and has never let it down since. I didn’t use to mind her harassing jokes until tonight though.

  
“What?” I ask loosing patience.

  
“Truth: Delly Cartwright is madly in love with a Thomas Miner. Both their profiles say they are ‘in a relationship’ with each other, which means is pretty serious. Serious enough to take a nice, long cruise together to the Coast of Mexico as an engagement gift!”

  
“No way!” I exclaim, climbing on all fours and crawling to her to take a peek at the page she’s looking at. “Holy shit! You’re right!”

  
It’s true. Delly is somewhere sipping margaritas with Thom in some beach in Mexico, sporting a rock the size of Texas on her ring finger. She looks good!

  
“She looks very happy,” I say absently.

  
“She does. Power to her.” says Jo. “Now that we’ve got the truth out of the way, let’s bring in the dare!”

  
“Hey, I never said this was my truth. If anything it’s Delly’s truth.” I protest.

  
“No takesis backsis, Brainless. A deal is a deal!” She glares at me. “I never said I was going to ask you any truths. So, listen up, buttercup, here’s your dare:”

  
“Ugh, please… don’t call me Buttercup. That nasty beast hates me!”

  
“That’s because you antagonize him. Prim’s cat is perfectly sweet to me and everyone else.”

  
I roll my eyes at her, but I’m unable to do anything else, because she goes off stating her Dare:

  
“I dare you to say hello to Peeta Mellark next time you see him,”

  
I take a second to think this over, and come to the conclusion than saying hello to Peeta is a perfectly innocent dare, It shouldn’t be that hard now that we got officially introduced to each other. I nod reluctantly, “Fine, dare accepted. I’ll say hi to Peeta next time I see him around.”

  
“Cool. I’m glad we could come to an understanding, Brainless. Now let’s get ready for bed. I gotta be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.”

  
I lift myself off the floor feeling Johanna was oddly easy to appease just now. Usually she’s like a hound with a prey scent in her nose. I don’t know why was she so agreeable and her dare so easy, but I’m not gonna argue about it, specially since she dropped the subject, finally!

 

 

* * *

 

  
Two days go by before I see Peeta again, and to my utter horror, he’s chatting with Johanna when I spot him at the library. I try to duck out of sight before they notice me, but as is my luck, his bright blue eyes shift up right into mine at the precise moment I think of my escape route at the other side of the room. Unfortunately for me, Johanna follows his sight and smirks as soon as she sees me, then she squeezes his arm saying something to him, and slinks in my direction like a kitten spying a bowl of cream.

  
“Hi, Katniss,” she drags the ss like Finnick did the night we met, and I already hate the sound of it.

  
“Jo,” I deadpan.

  
“Come on, Brainless. It’s pay-up time!” she links her arm with mine and I swear she skips gleefully the whole way back to Peeta, who’s just watching us interact as if it was the most interesting thing he’s seen all day.

  
We finally stop in front of him, and I feel my cheeks flame for a second. I hope my tongue decided to cooperate so I can say hello and get Johanna off my back for good, but she starts blabbing about something I can’t quite follow, giving me a chance to find my nerve.

  
“So, Katniss, Peeta here was telling me about his amazing gaming system collection. He says he’s got one console of every system released–”

  
“Um, more like I have one of each consoles I could afford with my allowance money starting on seventh grade.” He corrects Jo with an embarrassed chuckle, his cheeks tint a slight pink color that actually suits him pretty nicely.

  
“Yeah, but didn’t you say some of them are now considered classics?” She prods smiling, twisting my arm in hers painfully.

  
He chuckles again, averting his eyes to the floor. The pink in his cheeks intensify, and it finally clicks with me, that what Jo is saying is embarrassing him for some reason.

  
“Hi!” I say too loud and seemingly out of the blue, but I finally get him to look at me and erase a bit of his embarrassment to boot. “H-how are you? I love your buns, I mean, the cheese buns your dad sells, you know? The ones with the gooey cheese on them, those are like my favorite treat ever. My sister is more partial to the cakes, because they’re so pretty and all, but I rather eat something less sugary… not because I’m watching my diet or anything, I hate diets, is more the fact that I enjoy cheese… um… okay, so, I know nothing about video games, but I’m sure you were very popular in school for having all those consoles–”

  
The only reason my freaky word vomit stops is because Johanna’s nails dig into my forearm viciously. I’ll have a huge, ugly scar there when she finally lets go of it, but right now I’m glad she’s put an end to my running mouth.

  
My eyes are watering slightly, and I can see the puzzlement in his face clear as day. Poor guy looks like he’s been hit on the face with a rubber chicken: a mix of disbelief and the same curiosity that forces you to watch a train wreck from beginning to end.

  
“Excuse us a sec, Blondie?” Johanna pulls me away, but my eyes remain unblinking staring at him in utter horror.

  
“Shit,” I groan just loud enough for Johanna to hear.

  
“Shit is right! The hell was that? Is that what nervous-Katniss sounds like? Because it’s absolutely horrible.” She wrinkles her nose, and I finally manage to tear my eyes away from Peeta’s face.

  
“Thank you, Jo! I hope you’re happy now! I told you I was no good at saying something to people, especially him!”

  
“Hush, is a good thing he’s got a thing for you, otherwise you would have blown it just now, miss awkward.”

  
“What are you talking about, Johanna? He doesn’t have a thing for me.”

  
She rolls her eyes and tells me in her most aggravated voice, “You truly are brainless.” she softens her tone a little after taking a generous breath, “Alright, everything’s not lost. If the way he looks at you is any indication, he doesn’t care one bit how tongue tied you are, so all you have to do now, is go up there and ask him out on a date!” She sounds like she’s been planning this for quite some time now.

  
“Not gonna happen, Johanna. I can’t ask him out!”

  
“Why? And please don’t tell me it’s because of Delly, since we’ve already ruled Delly out of the equation.” She glares at me.

  
“Well, as you clearly see, I scared the daylights out of him. I will not make an even bigger idiot out of myself. We both saw how it was when I tried to say hello. It was supposed to be a simple greeting and it went totally wrong. So it’s not about Delly anymore, but about my inability to act like a normal person when he’s around.”

  
“Brainless, if you don’t go out there and ask him out this instant… I swear to Jebus I’m gonna make it my life mission to remind you of your yellow belly for the rest of your life.”

  
“I, dare you!” I retort brattily.

  
“No! I dare YOU to ask him out. In fact, I call in the yard law, and triple dog dare you!”

  
I gasp astonished, like the immature idiot I’ve become in the last few days once the challenge has been issued.

  
“You wouldn’t!” I say lowly.

  
“Is done!”

  
“Fine!”

  
I march back to Peeta, he’s been watching us curiously the whole time. I stand in front of him, crack my neck, square my shoulders and open my mouth. Only a squeak makes it pass my lips, so I clear my throat and lick my lips stealing myself.

  
“Date. Saturday. Greasy Sae’s. Seven o’clock. You and me. Bye now.” I don’t wait for his response, as my throat kept getting dryer with each word I said, and my voice was coming out as raspy and unattractive as a trucker dude with an allergy. I didn’t want the size of his eyes, that kept getting wider the more he heard me, be an indication of what his answer would be, so I hightailed out of there as fast as could before I started crying and perspiring. No reason to freak him out more than I’ve already have.

  
My next move is to go send Delly an apologetic message through facebook, for going after the boy she liked back home, but Johanna catches up to me, gasping and holding her sides.

  
“Can you please stop? I haven’t run this fast since my softball league days!”

  
“I didn’t know you played softball,”

  
“Every kid needs some bullcrap sport they can play before they can drive themselves.” She takes a few extra precious gulps of air, before getting on to me. “So, Peeta will be glad to go out with you to Sae’s Saturday, not that you’ll know since you didn’t wait around for him to say anything after that… whatever it was. Very smooth by the way.” now she’s laughing, but when her side starts clamping, I only scowl and start walking faster, leaving behind to hold her aching sides.

  
Serves her right!

 

 

* * *

 

  
When I get to Sae’s on Saturday, I’m surprised to spy Peeta’s mop of blonde hair carefully combed back, already sitting in my regular booth, on Jo’s regular bench.

 

My hands start sweating immediately. I take a step back, and when the panic takes over I turn on my heel ready to make a beeline for the door, but my path is blocked by a very intimidating looking Jo, wearing my server uniform, since I was scheduled to work today, and somehow forgot about it. Jo of course was not gonna let that conveniently forgotten detail derail my date with Peeta, so she cajoled Sae into letting her take my shift at the diner for the night. Of course when Sae heard why Jo was so invested in this, she simply gave us a toothy smile and told her to be there a half hour earlier so she could feed her something before her shift.

  
Traitors!

  
“Go to your table, Brainless!” Jo hisses at me.

  
Without a word, I turn towards the booth, and walk quickly. I practically plop into my seat without much decorum, flinging the purse Prim demanded I used instead of my usual messenger bag, paired with a vintage blue dress that used to be my mother’s when she was single, but still holds its charm and is probably the only girly piece I own in my entire wardrobe.

  
Peeta tries to stand when I arrive, but he finds himself impeded by the table between us. He plops back down again and gives me a smile, shy and sweet and full of hope I can feel my heart flutter.

  
“Hi,” he says quietly, “I brought this!” he hands me a small box, and like a little eager child I open it, in the most impolite manner ever.

  
I gasp when I see four perfectly cheesy cheese buns sitting over a blanket of tissue paper. “Peeta! You shouldn’t have,” I let my voice linger, staring at my favorite treat sitting there in front of me.

  
“I figured, it was better than bringing you chocolates. I mean, I brought flowers…” he produces a pretty bouquet from next to him and hands them to me. “But you said you didn’t like sweets that much. And I don’t care if you are watching your diet at all. I think you are the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”

  
“Oh… um, thank you.” I say feeling the heat return to my cheeks with a vengeance. I look at him and notice he’s turning lobster red as well, and that’s no good at all, so when I see him try to form words with his mouth, I jump in ahead, “You didn’t have to call home for this, you know.”

  
“I didn’t,” He says cocking his head curiously.

  
“Is there a bakery here that serves them? I’ve ever only had them at your dad’s.”

  
He smiles shyly again, and brings his hand to his hair, pulling it away as suddenly as he remembers he styled it today. “Actually… I baked them.”

  
“You did?” I sound like an awestruck little girl even to my ears. “Wow. thank you so much for saving me some. That’s awfully nice of you,” I say sincerely.

  
His deep blue eyes fix on mine, so intensely, I can’t look away. “I made them specially for you, actually. You said they were your favorite, and those, next to the cake decorating your sister loves so much, are my area of expertise at the bakery,”

  
Johanna comes to take our order, winking at me and giving the thumbs up when Peeta’s eyes are occupied with the menu and I’m glad for the interruption, because this is all too much.

  
Our date goes on inmensibly better after our drinks arrive, he orders a cup of hot tea, no sugar, and I order my regular mint tea with honey. Sometime after our meal sits in front of us, I notice Johanna is talking to Finnick and a pretty redhead two tables away. They’re all looking at us, smiling smugly.

  
“So, your friend does have a girl?” I ask Peeta, prompting him to look in the direction my eyes are glaring at Jo.

  
He makes a noise, half growl, half sigh, one hundred percent annoyance. He then gives me an apologetic look, his bright blue eyes full of embarrassment and regret. “I guess, I should inform you that apparently our roommates are a pair of con artists, who think themselves clever and entitled to rule our romantic lives.” He takes a deep breath, and elaborates before my brain can jump to any sort of conclusion, which given the circumstances, I consider a good move for him.

  
“Johanna and Finnick have been plotting to have either of us ask the other out for weeks.” He says shaking his head, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry they dragged you into this. I should’ve known better, is just… you asking me out was probably the highlight of my life. I like to think that, at some point, I would’ve gathered the courage to ask you out myself without anyoe’s intervention, but now I’ll never know. I’ll go talk to Finn, tell him to leave you alone–”

  
“So, you did WANT to go out with me?” I cut him off before he can stand up. My mind is swimming, but usually when I let my impulsive nature take over, I achieve better results than when I don’t.

  
He looks at me with curiosity in his eyes, I can tell he won’t lie to me about this, “I’ve had a crush on you since kindergarten,” he says in a deep voice that cuts through me, “I kept asking Delly to come play with me, in the hopes that she’ll invite you over one day. I had amazing plans of what I would’ve done, if you ever showed up to the playdates. I would’ve given you my Red Power Ranger figurine plus his vehicle. It was my most prized possession at the time.

 

"Then I graduated to Pokemon cards, and I had my mint condition Pikachu, all safe for you. Then I realized, that girls didn’t necessarily cared for things I did, and started observing you. You joined the Archery team, then the track team, so I decided I’d join wrestling, I figured we should have something in common to talk about for whenever I stopped being a chicken and said hi to you.” He stops, his eyes finding a home on his fidgeting fingers on the table.

  
I scowl, “How would joining the wrestling team give us something in common to talk about?” I ask with more curiosity than I would imagine I would have, if a boy practically confessed to semi stalking me all throughout our school careers.

  
His face snaps up to find mine. His forehead wrinkles for a moment. “Well, you were an athlete. We would’ve had stories about hardass coaches, or rigorous practices. We could’ve trained together after school,” He shrugs, “Wrestling was the no brainer option for me. My brothers had done it and I knew all of their moves since the practiced them on me. I don’t think I could’ve ever master a bow and I’m not physically built for races,” he gives a self deprecating smile that melts my insides.

  
“I see,” I say finding the grain of the wood under my hands very interesting suddenly. I can feel my cheeks flame, “You seem to have thought of things a lot,” I say quietly.

  
He releases a choked chuckle, “This must be so creepy for you. I’m sorry. I– I’m gonna just go. Thank you for–”

  
“I asked Delly to take me with her to your playdates more than once. She had her own crush on you, so she said she couldn’t really woed you, if there were other people around during your play times, so I was never invited.” I chance a glance at him, I can’t read his face at the moment, but I think there’s a slight raise to one of his eyebrows. “My favorite Power Ranger was the green one buy the way.”

  
“It’s your favorite color.” Is not a statement, but more like he’s fishing for an answer, so I nod.

  
“Yup. Your’s?”

  
“Orange,” He says smiling easily, “muted, like the sunset.” He adds when my nose wrinkles.

  
“I wouldn’t have taken your Pikachu. I would’ve traded you for it. I don’t believe in getting stuff for free. I would have make you a good deal for it.” I say trying to relax with all my might. “I wouldn’t have known anything about comic books though, just like I have no clue about video games or systems.”

  
He smiles crookedly, “That’s no problem at all. I can teach you everything you need to know… if you teach me how to shoot an arrow.” His eyes are so hopeful.  
I pretend to think about it, “I don’t know… maybe we have to talk this a little more, preferably over hot chocolate and more cheese buns,”

  
He smiles brightly now, nodding happily. “Sounds promising,”

  
We continue talking about pretty much any and every topic there is to talk about for two people just meeting each other; our banter is easy and comfortable, and when Sae clears her throat, three feet away from our table, we realize is closing time and the place is completely empty.

  
Peeta walks me back to my dorm, his car is still at the diner’s lot, but he insisted we walked because he figured it made me feel more at ease. By the time we reach my building, we have entered into more personal territory in our conversation. I’ve told Peeta Mellark more things about my late father in fifteen minutes, than what I’ve said to Jo in all the years we’ve known each other, which is quite a lot.

  
We stop at the front entrance, and stand there awkwardly for a moment.

  
“Thank you so much for not running away after my creepy story?” he says sighing.

  
“Have you really had a crush on me all this time?” I ask.

  
“Yup,” he says nudging a pebble with the toe of his Chucks while staring at his feet, “ever since you sang the valley song for the entire auditorium on our first day of school. You were everything I wasn’t: fearless, pretty, talented and you sounded like an angel.”

  
He won’t look at me but I can’t stop staring at him. “Hmm… well, you were always everything I wasn’t,” I say. “Smart, well liked, physically strong, and with an endless supply of freshly baked cookies,”

  
He smiles at that, and lifts his face to look at me. “My mother would only let us eat cookies that had gone too stale to sell, but I know a few recipes I can whip up for you, if you allow me another date,”

  
Is my turn to smile, I let myself be impulsive again, and surge up on the tip of my toes, plating an awkward kiss square on his unsuspecting lips. As fast as I attacked him, I retreat a foot away from him and virtually jump inside the building, but before the door can close behind me, separating us for the night, I throw him a wink and cheerfully call back, “I’ll allow it! Tomorrow at seven o’clock, pick me up here!”

  
I get a small glimpse of his face as it goes from shocked, to pleased, to confused, to surprised, back to happy and smiley. Something tells me, this is just the first of many more dates, kisses and fun times with Peeta Mellark.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this little piece. I still have more story in the works for the Challenge, which I hope to publish soon, then I can go back to my regular WiPs. 
> 
> Leave me a comment, or come say hi @alliswell21.tumblr.com


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